The Students of Symbiosis Infotech Campus (SIC) have come together to contribute towards providing better quality education for slum children.  The group is called Prayatna and their intention is to enrich the experience that the slum children get from the government run schools that they attend. Preeti Srivastav writes in this article in the Indian Express.

“These children do attend their government-run schools, but they needed that extra looking after to make themselves more competent. We not only take classes for them on our campus but have also got them admitted in a good English medium school for their better education,” says Chauhan, adding, “We have to catch them young as it becomes difficult to shift them from a Hindi or vernacular medium schools to a English medium one.”

The really interesting part is the source of the funds for this activity:

Not neglecting the funds, he said that they were paying Rs 7000 per children to the school, which in turn takes care of all the needs of the children – from fees to books to uniforms. When asked about the source of funds, Chauhan explained that SIC students conduct film festivals and games through which they collect money for the children. They also collect old clothes and books from SIC students. However the noble idea was of alumni adopting the children.

It is truly wonderful that as part of their college activities the students are able to source funds and provide for a better education for the lesser privileged children of our country. We hope that this model will act as a source of inspiration for many other colleges across India to give back something to the society.
And the work just doesn’t seem to stop at providing classroom education, as the article goes on to say:

Apart from the schooling, they also have many activities lined up for the kids.”We bring them to our campus five times a week and give them classes for english, maths, science, personality development, general knowledge and so on. We also take them for games and sports. We show them inspirational documentaries,” says Chauhan.

One of the objectives with which The Better India was started is to spread awareness and create a sense of social contribution amidst our citizens. Hence, for us it is heartening to note that today’s students are already treading this path of spreading welfare! We wish Prayatna all the very best in their ongoing endeavors and look forward to many more school children receiving quality education from SIC and other similar college bodies.

Read the complete article here.

Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit organization trying to improve the lives of slum children via the medium of education, recently held a literary fest. The objective of the fest was to get these children excited about reading, and also to explore their and encourage their creativity in writing and expression.

Preeti Srivastav reports in ExpressIndia about the programme in which more than 300 children participated and enjoyed. Excerpts:

“Nothing can replace the joy of reading, but children are so over burdened with their courses that they tend to loose interest. We are conducting festivals of this kind to encourage reading among the children. These children hardly come across good books. So we are here to bring some good reading to them,” shares Reeves Rodrigues, general manager, Aakanksha foundation.

Read the rest of the article here, and check out the Akanksha Foundation and the work they do here. For people who love to work with children, especially in Mumbai and Pune, they could offer several opportunities for volunteering.